With summer officially here, it’s easy to get distracted from your craft. Why stay indoors to write a new song when you could be soaking up the sun?

Turns out there are a ton of great reasons to keep that pen to the paper, and here are eight of them! If you have a special trick that keeps you motivated to keep writing that next masterpiece, be sure to share it in the comments!

1. "Avoid writing something that sounds overly complicated, focus on one cool thing at a time. If that goes well and the piece calls for more, make alterations." – Mahea Lee, pianist and composer
2. "The simplest songwriting game is to start with a word or phrase and write a song that incorporates it – the word or phrase doesn’t have to be the title or even a central element; it just needs to appear somewhere in the lyrics.... Everyone in the group takes a turn giving the prompt – which might be as simple as brown or as odd as the nonsense word gumanema." – Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, songwriter and author
3. "Read something new. If you enjoy fiction, pick up a biography. If you have a subscription to the New York Times, try reading some Pitchfork articles instead. Go for something you wouldn’t normally try, but have at least a mild interest in. That way, you won’t immediately put it down, but you’ll still get some refreshing new material, exposing you to different writers and styles." – Erin Brick, musician

4. "Let go of your past work and steer clear of any assumptions about your art. Once you’ve undergone enough introspection to wholeheartedly understand where you stand artistically, experimenting with difference genres could turn out to be the best choice you’ve ever made." – Eric Bernsen, marketing professional and hip-hop journalist
5. "LYRICS: Use proper nouns.... It's lyrically stronger to sing about 'the tall cactus in Tucson' than just 'the desert.' Specificity is more evocative." – Jesse Sterling Harrison, recording artist and author
6. "Use unique instrumentation, but make sure it doesn’t fight against the dialogue. Avoid brass solos or jarring electronic elements that live in the upper/middle frequencies where the human voice resides. Write to back the instrument part. When there are no spoken lines to compete with, enrich your music to drive the whole message." – Tanvi Patel, CEO of Crucial Custom

7. "I tend to look at success in songwriting as the process of reaching a critical mass or tipping point where good things start to happen. It often takes years and hundreds of songs before your first cut or song placement." – Cliff Goldmacher, professional songwriter and producer
8. "Changing listening environments is another way to trick yourself into approaching the song with fresh ears. Whether you’re playing the song live or listening to a recording you’re working on, getting outside of your normal songwriting or producing environment will help you get out of critical thinking mode and approach the song as an ordinary listener." – Casey van Wensem, freelance composer and writer